Puppy updates...blue pup...snow pics from today - Page 3

Little Mohawk - still my favorite - I´m glad you are able to observe his development during the next months! I love "special" dogs...

All very beautiful pups, I can't wait to see each and everyone as adults.I think Ely is going to go almost all the way black as an adult. 
   I've seen Iit several times. If someone didn't know he was born blue, they might night know any better when he's done.
And Dawulf, most of those that talk about the crosses are not speaking based on what they know, but rather what they have heard. I myself see a better balance Iin drives, gives gives you the opportunity to enhance the most desired drive for your purposes. 
    shit, Ely can be bred to twenty dogs that do not carry the dreaded gene, and never produce one blue pup, just the same as the entire litter.

Ely has the overall best build and bone- awesome feet, thick bone, really deep red. Naturally, he would be born blue with a reverse mohawk! LOL

I think Ehren or Eirik is going to leave today. Very nice man and I'm happy for whoever goes, but I'm getting rather attached to them all. 


Eirik

 

Thank God my pups don't stay too long, IF anyone makes it to 12 weeks, I won't send them.It is VERY HARD to not be attatched when you are hands on with them.
   Very beautiful pups jen, every one of them!

Beautiful pups :)
 

I'm really happy with my decision to keep them longer. I don't see it as a failure of some sort to be "stuck" with pups older than 8 weeks. I'm more confident in my placements than if I'd let them go at 8 weeks, since I've never done this cross before. The best homes were fine with keeping tabs on them and waiting.  I did let a couple go last week and one blue female the week before. But, I really have a much better understanding of the differences in this breeding vs. my pure working line breedings that I would not have had I let them go at 8 weeks. Just as I kept pups from Capri's first litter for 6 mos.+ (not all of them, just 2) I feel the learning and evaluation period is crucial to my future breeding decisions. How breeders can breed a litter for the first time, sell them at 8 weeks, repeat it 6mos. or a year later and make SOUND future decisions based on honest facts is beyond me.

Now, if you know your dogs that well and have gone through the evaluation before, then fine. But this was uncharted territory for me, the SL cross, and I felt like I needed to know before I can decide what the next move is. The right match temperamentally is my number one goal. I don't see how I could do that with an "eeny meenie miney mo" at 6-7 weeks or some puppy test. I know I over-analyze (waaaay guilty of that), but there are things I learn about the dogs at a year old that I never would've known at 8 weeks. Do their temperaments mostly stay the same? Yeah. But sometimes the little nuances can be more meaningful later than you ever imagined, or you find that you really blew something out of proportion when they were young. 

I keep thinking I can't take it anymore and want to stop breeding, but now that my bf has been injured badly enough that he may never be able to return to the work he used to do and he's getting so good with the dogs, since it's very likely that I will have help...I just may continue. It's so frustrating at times but SO rewarding when you get the really, really nice people and you're on the same wavelength and it's a match made in heaven. 

Sorry for the novel. 

Eirik! Look at that face!  

Kitkat, I'd be the same way.... I get so attached to dogs so easily... I'd cry every time one of them went home.

You are exactly right jen, and, I don't care what anyone says, the temperment of a pup can change drastically in 4 weeks.
    In no way did I mean to insinuate anything wrong with keeping them beyond 8 weeks, Hell, if I didn t get so attatched, I wouldn't care keeping mine longer.
     It really is hard, sending them tho, the longer you have them. My pups are born and kept in my hoyse. They are in no way, shape or form kennel dogs.
    Like you, your son is playing with them daily, they are in your kitchen. So much easier to make sure we are doing the right thing, by each and every pup, and new owner...
    Than these 'breeders' that keep strictly kennel dogs and pups. You get to know each one as an individual.
I myself , love, love, love having and raising a litter of pups. Nothing better than providing someone, what gets said to be,
"The BEST dog we ever had"

I had a very hard time letting puppies go. Each personality was so unique, they really were so much fun to raise. I had a pup that I kept until he was 7 months, he was such an old soul, so willing. He would tuck his chin down into his chest whenever he got scolded either by his dam or me, & think about it, then come over & present himself to whomever corrected him, like he was waiting for forgiveness. He was super smart, & he really needed just the right placement. He finally went to a very nice gentleman, experienced with GSDs, who as kept me updated on the awesome dog he's become; but that parting was so hard. We drove to meet him...Carl had to drive away, I couldn't see the road through my tears. That pup had his chin to his chest, his thinking pose, but his eyes stretched wide & following me as we drove away...he was attached too. I had prepared his new owner to the fact the the pup was bonded, & they worked through it, it was tough on me.  Kali missed him too. She was very proud of her babies, & seemed to notice each pup was gone as they went to their homes. We kept 2 pups, 1 I had planned on keeping, & 1 Carl fell in love with, we had a home for her but they backed out; & that was fate. Carls little girl! She's a pain in the ___! But he loves her, when they go for walks she walks along with her nose in his hand, we always are on leash in our little community, but truly, she never leaves his side. Ah, well! Sorry for the stroll down memory lane....Your pups are so beautiful Jen, & your points are valid! jackie harris